Having grown up with Top Of The Pops, it somehow feels wrong that the BBC’s famous music show no longer exists (aside from Christmas specials). It was tacky, cheesy and being purely chart-driven meant that one-hit wonders got attention and some more interesting artists were often ignored completely. As an institution of British music though, it towered above all else.

Even more than having a record contract, appearing on Top Of The Pops was a signifier that you really *were* a proper band. I’ve read countless musicians saying that it’s the absolute standard taxi-driver question when you tell them what you do for for a living. “Oh yeah? You been on Top Of The Pops, then?”.

Well now they had – and to taxi-drivers, relatives and school-friends alike, they really had “made it”.

R42